BoA was forced by Paulsen to take TARP money and has repaid it all with interest.
Some reports indicate BoA was bamboozled into buying Merrill Lynch by “fraud” committed by CEO Ken Lewis-
NY Governor Gigolo Cuomo was pursuing “fraud” charges as a pre-election grandstanding move
however the Lewis legal team planned to call both Paulsen and Bernanke as witnesses.
Haven’t heard much about that actually going to trial?
BoA also got ~$100B in secret Fed funding (of $1.2T distributed to all banks) that no one knew about.